If you’ve ever attended a Big Ten men’s basketball game, you know the excitement builds as the crowd files in. Players run drills on the court as the pep band runs through the set list, all contributing to the growing buzz. Now we offer Court Pass, a live online camera delivering exclusive pregame video from selected BTN TV games throughout the Big Ten men’s basketball season. And it starts tonight.

With the nonconference season now in the books, BTN.com’s basketball panel decided to release its best of the 2013 nonconference season. From superlative honors to All-Big Ten teams, our guys offer their picks. See it all in this post. Don’t agree? Feel free to leave your picks in the submission box at the bottom of the post.

There are 12 games this week to open the Big Ten season. And many of the matchups will go a long way toward shaping the race, with Iowa’s trip to Wisconsin being the headliner. In fact, it could be one of the better games of the season. Here’s a ranking of this week’s games.

The conference hoops season tips off New Year’s Eve. I hope you’re excited, too! Before the games really start to count, here are 14 (random) thoughts I have entering 2014. For the record, no, these thoughts are in no particular order.

The Big Ten went 5-1 on Saturday to close out the nonconference season with a bang. There were plenty of memorable moments early on this year, so how do we go about summing up 12 teams and 153 total nonconference games? Simple — We follow the rules of twitter.